Somewhat surprisingly, judging panel Chairman Simon Frith said that the discussions were “acrimonious”.

The shortlist is compiled by 10 judges from the music industry, journalists from The Times and music business trade magazine Music Week and executives from MTV and radio and the BBC from a pool of 140 releases entered for the competition by record labels. It’s claimed that the decision on the winner is not made until just before the actual announcement.

Click here to read John Mulvey on this year’s Mercury Music Prize nominees.